Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-20
DAILY HERALD.
BALLONA HARBUR.
what an Easserncr Thinks OF
IT'S Future.

waving grain fields, found myseii on Tue
shifting sandy beach by the white comb.
ing breakers Of Santa Monica bay, and
al the place where now the work OF
making AN harbor is being vigorously
pushed.
Where they commenced work some
ak months ago ON sand hill, forty
feet above tidewater, they can now sall
vessels drawing eight and ten feet; thus
giving us some idea what five or six
months more work will do toward max
ing an harbor at that point. Their
preseut plans are for an entrance chan
mel 2O5 feet wide and Is feet deep, at
extreme low tide. piled closely on each
eide out into the sea for distance Of
1000 feet, where they have about twenty
feet of water at low tide, with clay
bottom. They contemplate, however,
extending their channel still another
500 feet, aud into the sea to still deeper
water. The material they will excavate
will be sand and clay, soundings hav-
iug been sunk to determine this. The
anchorage outside the harbor is of the
best, being stiff blue clay and spoken
of very highly by masters Of vessels
who Of necessity have had to use it,
Much has been said lately of "arti.
fetal harbors,' and much of it mali
ciously, and though / am not picking up
any gauntlet would still like to speak
a few words Of truth.
The amount of dredging which they
will have to do to change the lake from
it's present condition to the contemplated
Que of an uniform width of 500 feet and
a depth of % feet at low water, is OF
course of some considerable moment, but
1t seems small task and easily com.
pIeted when we compare it with exca.
vations made Ia another place, end Of
which most OF us know, and that is now
carrying fleets of our merchantmen, aud
from which place there was taken ma
terial enough if il were placed as belt
one yard high aud one yard wide to ex.
tend more than twice around cur earth
at its greatest circumference, this, Of
course, seems very large, and although
this contemplated building of an artificial
barbor by the projectors of the "Bal.
Iona" enterprise has seemed large task,
they are comforted with such facts as
these, and that also we have an artificial
harbor to-day, the name of which is, to
the deep sea rover. almost as familiar as
the word home, which was made by
building converging lines Of stones out
into the sea for more than 1000 feet.
and so great was this task, that even
this stone--none being near-must of
necessity be manufactured, which neces.
STATED the bringing of ene-fourth of Its
material thousands of miles. This one.
fr,,rth hx-lVa.,Isa
with sand and salt water was moulded
into huge blocks of over 40, 600 pounds
weight, every block OF which it took
more than three months to become into
condition, until they could then be
loaded on lighters and taken out and
dropped into the sea to form those walls
TO the harbor. The harbor was then
dredged and is used to-day by ships of
an the world.
One of our most modern inventions
for excavating under water is known as
a suction dredger," Of which the In
provement company have one with a
capacity Of cutting through sand and
mud swath thirty feet deep, 10 feet
wide, and semicircularly fifty feet in
length, without changing her anchorage
(simply as a man makes a single stroke
with scythel, and of discharging this
material through a twenty.ipch pipe at
any place they may wish within radius
OF half mile. They will thus, having
this modern machine, have no trouble in
doing any and whatever dredging thew
may need to do, and much more, should
il be q necessity. l give these items
only to show what has been and may be
done by men with push and persever-
ence, asd what is being done here at
home now for our benefit.
There is a beautiful view from the
bluff where the townsite is located, and. i.
as stood there looking over the work
now being doue at the harbor, and away
oH to the distant meuntains beyond the
City of the Angels, a panorama of the
future unrolled Itself to me, and | could
see this little harbor crowded with
ships from all nations, some with the
sweet odors Of the south winds still
olinging to their shrouds; some from the
north, with furs, lumber, black dia-
nonds, etc, and others from that far-oH
country from whence they come TO us
loaded with heather" and tea. How
our courts will grsan then with
the habeas corpus. All bringing
their merchandise to our port to
meet those bands of steel that will soon
be binding it to the far Atlantic with the
shortest route from ocean to ocean, and
soon over those same steel bands, down
through the City Of the Angels to the
little harbor now building. and which
will be big harbor then, will pour the
traffic of four great overland RAILWAYS
to meet ''thosa who go down to the sea
in ships" These four railways will be
the Santa Fe with its far Eastern connec.
tions, the Stu hern Pacific, the Union
Pacific, which will come south taking
the same old trail made years ago by the
Mormons on their way from the great
Salt Lake, across the San Bsrnardino
Mountains, near the city of the same
name, and on through the City Of Los
Angeles to the sea, at Ballona. The
other is the G. B. & O., which is now
leading this way and pushing its work
so fast that almost before we can realize
it. it will be singing its song of steam in
our very midst and bidding with the
others for its share of our traffic East
and West.
This is something of the future that
we can now assure to our City OF the
Angels: and that at no far distant day:
and these roads coming here, and the
traffic and facilities for it which they
will bring with them, and from which !
Los Angeles will derive infinite bene-
fits, will make her the future great
city Of our Pacific Coast, and Port
Bailons. undoubtedly, the safest and
best harbor in Southern California.
a."